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Michael J. Sullivan
Michael Sullivan started his writing career at the tender age of ten. After reading Lord of the Rings, he decided to craft a similar tale and wrote it on a manual typewriter found when cleaning out his sister's closet. Over a span of fifteen years he wrote thirteen novels, but never made any serious attempts at publishing. He decided to break into the writing world with a literary piece finely crafted after the likes of John Steinbeck and John Updike. When he failed to get this novel published, he quit writing for nearly ten years. Michael's writing spark was re-ignited when he started reading Harry Potter with his dyslexic middle daughter. He fell in love with the story and decided to write something "just for fun". The result was his six-book series the Riyria Revelations. Sullivan was born in Detroit, Michigan and has lived in Vermont, North Carolina and Virginia. He worked as a commercial artist and illustrator, founding his own advertising agency in 1996, which he closed in 2005 to pursue writing full-time. He currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife and three children. He is currently editing book four of the Riyria Series, keeping to his aggressive schedule of releasing one book every six-months. Riyria Revelations The Riyria Revelation is a multi-book saga that tell one story in six episodes, rather than a string of sequels based on the first successful story. The entire epic tale was completed before the first novel went to press allowing for a tale that unfolds across the whole breadth of the series, with secrets deliberately hinted at in one book being fulfilled in later novels and some saved to the very end. Yet despite this, each book is a full episode, with its own beginning, middle and end, which can be enjoyed independently. Set in an era of knights and kings it is a world dominated by mankind surrounded by a sea of uncharted wilderness and lost knowledge. Elves, once slaves, live in squalor shunned by respectable citizens. Dwarves remain isolated in ghettos, valued for their skills, but restricted from human society. A world of divided kingdoms left in the wake of a once grand empire now lost to a mythical past. It is a story of sword fights, castle sieges, mythical creatures, sea battles, magic, romance and intrigue where not everything is as it seems and shadows lengthen with each book. What begins as an exciting but simple turn of events in the first novel, grows into a decidedly serious and eventually frightening, spiral of lies and murders whose ultimate purpose remains a mystery. The series is intentionally written with a "light hand" avoiding long-winded descriptions of unfamiliar names in order to keep the pace rolling. The result is a story that creates depth though the plot, characters, action and dialog, rather than narration. The series is the story of individuals, of characters readers care about, and believe in, despite their flaws; of antagonists who aren't the enemy merely because they are "evil"." It is escapist entertainment that once begun, may be hard to escape. Books in the series * The Crown Conspiracy * Avempartha * Nyphron Rising * The Emerald Storm (April 2010) * Wintertide (October 2010) * Percepliquis (April 2011) Awards and recognition * The Emerald Storm Named a 2010 Anticipated Release by Fantasy Book Critic * Wintertide Nameed a 2010 Anticipated Release by Fantasy Book Critic * Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews Names The Riyria Revelations to its Top 10 books of 2009 List * Nyphron Risng Designated a Noteworthy Release by Fantasy Book Critic * Avempartha Named One of the Notable Fantasy Books of 2009 by Fantasy Book Critic * The Crown Conspiracy Named one of top 5 Fantasy of Books of 2009 by Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews * 2009 National Indie Excellence Award Finalist for Fantasy for The Crown Conspiracy * 2008 ReaderViews Literary Award Finalist for Fantasy for The Crown Conspiracy * Crown Conspiracy Named 2008 Fantasy Book Critic Notable Indie * 2007 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist for Fantasy * The Crown Conspiracy Awarded 5th place in 2008 Adventure Writers Competition External links *Author's webpage *Author's blog *Author's publisher Sullivan, Michael J.